Sicily cycling trip

Our trip was about seven days long (not all of those were riding days). We went from Scopello on the northwest coast of Sicily to Selinunte on the southwest coast. There was about 200 kilometres of riding (not counting getting lost, which happens, happily) over a variety of terrain: urban style in small cities, towns and villages, flat coastal runs and some moderate mountainous climbs and drops.

Monica and I rode rented bikes from Crilu, the bike tour company based in Palermo, Sicily. The bikes are Italian-made Ghironi touring bikes, relatively heavy but well made 21-speeds.

Chris and Sarah have their folding bikes they bought from Bike Friday, in Oregon, U.S.A.

We start our trip, oddly enough, walking - into the Zingaro Natural Reserve just outside Scopello (near Castelleamare de Golfo) on the northwest coast of the Sicily. (Zingaro means "Gypsy" in Italian.)

Zingaro was created as a preserve in the 1940s. There are amazing birds, wildfowers, ocean views, hiking trails, beaches and interpretive centres.

We rode our bicycles alomng with Chris and Sarah from our hotel, Tenute Plaia, to the frontier of the park and payed the €3 (One euro now about $1.60 Canadian, I believe) each admission.

The space is not so large by Canadian standards. In a strong, hot Scirocco wind blowing in on the coast over from North Africa, we hiked from the southern end of the reserve about ninety minutes to the North. We got about halfway up the park's trails. The whole park South to North and back again along the coast would likely be a good day's hike.

But we had another date for 3 p.m. with chef Tony Sorrentino, who runs the kitchen at Tenute Plaia. Sarah, out trip research expert, had arranged this half-day cooking lesson through the tour company.

It was time very well spent. Tony (who, not surprisingly) speaks Italian, was assisted by Italian-English translator Daniela Orlando, who told us she was born in Scotland, and who speaks English with a wonderful blend of Sicilian and Scots accents.

Also in the kitchen were cook Adriana Vivona and kitchen manager (I missed her precise title in the operation) Nunziella Ferrarello.

Around 3:00 p.m. the strong wind that had buffeted us for two to three days and nights suddenly dropped in force and changed directions. The weather cooled suddenly and drastically and it began to rain just in time to go to the fields with Tenutos Plaia's owner, Cinthia Plaia, to pick fresh vegetables for our cooking lesson.

We picked young red-jacketed onions, ripe artichoke heads and huge fava beans.

Tony then put us to work cleaning bisecting artichoke heads, claening out the "bears in the middle of each artichke heart and throwing the hearts in water with a little leon juice so the cleaned artichokes didn't turn brown. We minced the artichkes and cleaned the onions, tossing the red parts of the skins, leaving the tender greeny-white sections to cook in a pot with anchovies, the artichokes, olive oil and sea salt to make Sicilan caponada. Tony, who gets very emotional when he discussed cooking explained that although he likes to use garlic in his cooking, the menu at Tenute's restaurant serves traditional Sicilian dishes. as Sicilian cuisine tradionally uses onions over garlic, he does not use garlic for his restaurant's fare.

The cooking of delicious foods went on and on. We stuff thinly sliced steaks of fresh swordfish with home-made bread crumbs. The rolled fish was then cooked slowly in a warm oven.

We double-peeled the fava beans (first shelling them like one would fresh garden peas and second peeling the outer shell of each individual bean.) Holy labour intensive cooking, Batman!)

The beans were then cooked with water, olive oil and salt in a pot on the stove. when they softened, Tony ground them into a chunky puree with a hand-held food processor.

At the same time he was cooking his frozen home-made pasta on his stove. When the pasta was done, he poured on the fava sauce andwe ate in right in the kitchen. It was incredible. A healthy vegetarian pasta meal. I ill dfeinitely try to re-create this one back home.

We also made a cooked desert with milk and corn starch which is then poured into upsdie-down moulds with cookie biscuits on the bottom and topped (bottomed?) with cocoa chocolate. This desert is then served cool.

We asked some questions such as - does one put veggie oil in the water when you are cooking pasta? Tony's answer: a little bit of oil, but only when you are cooking a very soft pasta such as egg pasta, and more typically with softer fresh pastas).

When we finished this amazing lesson we went back to our rooms and got cleaned up. When we went back to the restaurant that night we were served the food we helped make. That was so cool. (This was primarily a fixed menu restaurant, but you do get some choices of what you get in any given course.) The Italians have a more formal (one might say more cultured way?) way of serving dinner in three to four courses, but that's another story.

I took some video of Tony's cooking lesson. Once I figure out how to digitze the footage I will try posting some select clips.

The organization and dedication in restaurant people here makes the Canadian food industry look...well like an industry. There are far more fresh ingrdients and much less corporatization of food service production (At least I sense from what I have seen.) It is not surprising that Italians pioneered the "slow food" movment. They have so much to lose by the takeover of McDonald's type food factories.

I also note that the agriculture seems to be done on smaller plots and with less mechanisation than in North America. It is refreshing to see.